Bolt: A Dog of Two Tales
by The Grim Reader
Summary: One of my old stories, finally receiving a reboot: Tools of War. Set a year after the original movie, Bolt finds himself in trouble when an old friend comes back to haunt him and his family. After a strange visit to the vet, his world is turned upside down. Will Bolt find the answers to what troubles him before it's too late?


Bolt awoke with a start; his eyes wide open with a look of fear but he was still held firmly in place by Penny's warm embrace. His chest heaved up and down frantically as his look of panic soon turned to a look of calm as realization had set in. He was still at home, cuddled up next to his person. Normally on any other night it would've been enough for the canine to drift back to sleep in her arms, but tonight he knew he had to do something more than sleep away his worries. Carefully, he had slipped out of his person's arms, and off towards the side of the bed. Before jumping onto the floor, he had caught a glimpse of a certain black and white cat resting at the end of the bed. "He looked solemnly as he passed her, before shaking his head." His eyes went over towards the slightly cracked door, as he stealthily made his way past. Sticking his nose through the door, he easily made his way down the hallway, as he sighed. Bolt noticed an eerie glow coming from the end of the hallway, no doubt coming from the television in the living room.

"Huh...Rhino isn't supposed to be up this late at night." He mumbled to himself. Making his way into the living room his eyes caught sight of the strange device his person called a television. He looked at the device to realize the talking head on the screen was talking about him.

_"In other news, the man who tried to shoot up Dawton High School a month and a half ago has escaped from the county jail. Reports show the male, Anderson Goodvibe, escaped the prison with a makeshift explosive devi.."_

Bolt eyes widened as he recognized the face. It was when he had been living another life, his person had talked about him from time to time as the guy who kept Bolt in the dark. He was as his person called him, her agent. He didn't have time to ponder why when a familiar voice caught the canine's attention.

"What are you doing up so early, Wags?" A familiar black and white feline called from the hallway.

"Mittens...I was uh...I just needed to go use the bathroom." He lied, his eyes turning down and to the left as he looked away from Mittens and turned towards the door.

"Bolt, I know better, you went to the bathroom an hour ago. What's going on?" She asked as she tilted her head, trotting towards the white American Shepherd, moving in front of him to block his path.

"Mittens you wouldn't understand..." He had an air of remorse about him, as if he'd done something wrong.

"It's about what happened at the school isn't it? You never seem to want to talk about it, but...Bolt. Look, you can tell me anything alright? What has you so shook up?" She asked, placing a paw on his chest.

"It was bring your pet to school day. Penny thought it'd be interesting for everyone to see me in class. I guess she wanted to show me off. During the middle of our presentation...a loud weird noise rang out from the speakers. I didn't catch what the big voice over the box was trying to say. All I heard was gunshots. People crying...he came into our room. I saw the look of anger in his eyes when he pointed the barrel at me." He said, his voice only a little shaken but determined as he told his story. Mittens eyes opened wide and her jaw dropped a little in disbelief.

"You're kidding? Bolt...please tell me you're kidding? This is just some kind of sick joke, isn't it?" She asked as she was almost left speechless.

"I wish I was. But I've faced the barrel of a gun many times and never turned my head an inch. Only this time...I knew it was real. And you know what was funny?" He said as he gave her a little smile.

"What?" She asked.

"I still didn't budge an inch. My ears twitched...my eyes were dead set on the mans throat. I didn't flinch when the barrel went off. I blanked out...I didn't move on my own, it was like I was a different dog." He said as he turned around, beginning to walk back towards the kitchen.

"Bolt...I-I really didn't know." Mittens said, a tone of empathy carried in her voice as she followed.

"All I remember is the man on the floor, my teeth clenched tight against shoulder as some strange men had to pull me off of him. It's not the fact that I faced a gun Mittens. It's the fact I dodged a bullet that has me scared. Ever since that day, I've been feeling strange. Stronger...faster..." He seemed to daze off as if getting lost on his own train of thought as he entered the kitchen, going towards a door just past the dining room table, doggy door flapping in the wind.

"Bolt...you're starting to scare me a little." She said, looking a bit puzzled at what he was about to do.

"Mittens, what if you're next? What if I blank out and I...what if...what if I hurt Penny?" He said, scratching the back of his ear nervously with one of his back legs.

"Bolt...I know you wouldn't do anything to hurt me. We're best pals, we're like two sardines in a can. I can trust you." Mittens said as she rubbed the side of her body against the side of Bolt's, only stopping when she turned to face him.

"But I'm not letting you leave..." The sly feline said as she puffed her chest out, trying to look intimidating to the larger, stronger dog in front of her, even as her legs began to shake. She didn't want to admit it wasn't from the cold blowing in through the doggy door behind her.

"Mittens." He said softly, with a sort of restrained annoyance a father would talk down to a child. "You can either join me, or you can stay here, but either way I'm leaving." He said as he easily brushed the cat aside gently with his paw, walking towards the door. He looked back only for a moment to talk to Mittens. Bolt was quickly taken by surprise as he felt the cat bite into his tail.

"Ow! Mittens, get off!" He cried, swinging his body slightly around in circles as if to try and get the cat. He stopped moving and calmly began to move towards the door.

"If it were up to me, Mittens. I would love to stay, with you...and Penny. Even Rhino. But I know that if I stay here, something bad is going to happen. Whether you like it or not, you can't deny you haven't noticed anything." He said as he pushed the doggy door with his snout.

"Are you crazy!? You'll freeze to death, Bolt! Do you even know where you're going?" She asked, the from the storm outside littering the kitchen.

"Of course I do. After all, we traveled across the entire country. How hard could a visit to the vets be?" He said smirking. This of course made Mittens loosen her grip on white shepherd flufffy tail with a sudden gasp.

"What!? Why do you want to go there?! Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

"Because. I know for a fact it was one of the vets that gave me a rather strange shot. And I didn't feel like this before going to the vet the last time. So...I've come to the conclusion that if I want answers. I'll need to go back." He said as he sighed, almost in regret, walking out as the doggy door flapped behind him.

"Great. I'll have to make sure that crazy mutt doesn't get himself killed..." She sighed, as she ran after him.

* * *

Bolt was struggling to move in any meaningful direction as it all seemed like they were going in circles. The snow made everything around them nothing but a silhouette of white. Only Mittens, who had managed to stay so close to Bolt, was distinguishable in the white cloud of the snowstorm. The only hint any of them were on a road at all was what they could feel underneath their paws. Bolt was starting to get worried that he had inevitably sent all of them to freeze to death in the cold, harsh winter night. All of a sudden Bolt lifted his head from the cold, hard ground. Something had caught the small White American Shepherd's eye. His nose flared a little as his hair stood up on end.

_"Relax….I'm not here to harm you."_A calm voice spoke as if he was there, right in front of him, but as Bolt looked around he couldn't find where the voice was coming from. A strange form, hazy at first began to appear to Bolt in the shape of a man. All Bolt could see was his eerie silhouette, but having no features other than his voice to tell what he was talking to. The spirit moved and motioned for him to follow.

_"I need your help…"_ He called out longingly. Something drew Bolt towards the weird image in front of him as he looked around to see if Mittens could see what he was seeing. He looked more confused than scared as to why this thing chose to talk to him. His hair began to lie down on his back, as the sense of danger had long passed. The more he seemed to stare at this, the more he started calm down. A strage wave of relief came over him as he took a hesitant step forward. 'Am I being put under some type of trance?' He thought.

"Bolt?" Mittens asked as she looked at him, standing close by his side, her tail flicking back and forth. "What's wrong?" She asked. Bolt didn't answer her as; with every passing second he was more interested in the voice then what was going on around him.

"I think…." Bolt started to say as he trotted off towards the apparition, as clearly he didn't know what it was, but he felt a strange urge to follow.

"Bolt…Bolt! Where are you going?" She asked as she trotted up closer to him, side by side with him as he forged onward in the eye of the storm.

"I don't know…" Bolt said as if in a trance, his body seemingly moving of its own accord. Mittens had a feeling something weird was going on as she hesitantly followed Bolt into the unknown. Mittens had objections of course, but she couldn't exactly object to the given circumstances. In her mind it was either follow the crazy dog, or freeze to death. It wasn't a very hard decision for the feline, as she sighed.

"I'm only going along because if I don't, I'd be turnin into a popsicle all by myself." She called as she ran after the dog she'd come to realize was a magnet for trouble. In what felt like an instant, the white wall of snow that had robbed both Mittens and Bolt of their sight had become a gentle breeze, turning what was once a harsh downpour of snow into a gentle sprinkle of snowflakes. They had escaped the biggest part of the storm, and but their troubles were just beginning. Off in the distance Bolt could see the Vets 4 Pets sign, just where he needed to go. He looked around for the odd spirit or hologram or whatever it was that had helped Bolt find his way there but he found he could not sense him at all. Seeing the obviously bewildered look on the canine's face, she chuckled.

"What's wrong Wags? Scared you haven't had all your vaccines yet?" The suave black feline said before she casually walked past him, and towards their distant, but not too far objective. Bolt shook his head decided to just leave it be for now.

"It's nothing Mittens." He said, even unsure of it himself as the hair on the back of his neck was still standing as rigid as the icicles dangling from the Vets 4 Pets sign. The closer they came to the small clinic the more they could see it had been abandoned from the storm. Lights were off inside, and from what Bolts and Mittens could tell as they approached the door, the door seemed to be locked.

"Well, we tried Wags. We should probably go back home." Mittens said but as soon as she turned her back to the door, a large clicking sound was heard as the door creaked slowly open. The door moved to and fro from the harsh cold wind, bringing the white shepherd to look at Mittens.

"We can't turn back now. We'd simply freeze to death trying to get home." Bolt said as he looked up at the rather familiar front door of the Vets 4 Pets clinic. He shivered, as a cold sense of foreboding made its way through his body. Stepping inside the clinic for the first time since his last visit, Bolt began getting chills down his spine. As they both walked further through what looked to be the waiting room, the door behind them locked closed as the sprinklers began to spray the room with a mysterious green gas. It was even rising up from the vents on the bottom of the room as Bolt began to panic. It didn't take long however for the panic to fade, as his vision turned blurry, then….darkness.

* * *

**Leave a review and let me know what you guys think. Much appreciated and thank you for reading. I will work hard next chapter~Grim.**


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